A/N Please Review! Reviews=motivation=updates.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

"What do you think it's like?" asked Hanna suddenly, distractedly, looking up from her texting, her perfectly manicured fingers frozen in place, hovering just about the screen. She stared at the dark-haired girl who walked across the courtyard of Rosewood High and sighed at what she saw.

"Hmm?" questioned Caleb looking up from his laptop, his fingers continuing to type, following Hanna's gaze.

"Meeting your soul mate when you're thirteen and knowing that's the person you're supposed to spend your life with?" clarified Hanna.

Caleb stopped typing and closed his screen to really look at the dark-haired girl who was busy talking to Emily. "I don't think it's all sunshine and butterflies, that's for sure," he answered with a shake of his head.

"Still," insisted Hanna, "there is something romantic about it. Guy next door meets girl next door."

"More like creepy man next door meets little girl next door," snorted Caleb, moving to re-open his laptop.

Hanna nudged him as she stuck her cell phone in her purse. "You don't really think that, do you? You like Mr. Fitz, right?"

Caleb shrugged and turned his attention back to his work. "I like him well enough for a teacher. I just think something is weird, that's all, for a grown man to fall for a high school girl."

"It it?" asked Hanna. "My dad is almost ten years older than my mom."

"And look at how that ended up," returned Caleb, his tone dripping with acid.

"Hey," exclaimed Hanna, "that's not fair."

"Okay," said Caleb, "I guess it's not. But still. Of all the women in this town why Aria?"

"Of all the women in this town, why not Aria?"

"Because she's much younger than him, in high school, and what about the part where she's his student?" asked Caleb skeptically.

"True love doesn't care about things like that," replied Hanna dreamily.

"True love doesn't want to end up in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, either."

"What's your problem today?" asked Hanna, turning her attention to her boyfriend and the screen that popped up on his computer.

"I just think," said Caleb, his gaze lingering on Aria as she entered the main building with Emily, "that you think she has it so easy and perfect when her life might be harder than what you give her credit for."

"What are you looking up?" asked Hanna.

"I think," said Caleb softly, "that after all those years in foster care, I finally found my mom. She's in California."

"Oh," replied Hanna, leaning in closer to him and resting her head on his shoulder so she could study the computer screen more carefully.

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"Earth to Jason," said Spencer as she sat down next to him on the sofa. "What are you doing?" She took a sip of her coffee.

"Just thinking," he replied turning to her. He stared in amazement as she clutched her drink. "I'm not entirely sure why you like the coffee here so much," he continued, grimacing as he took a sip of his.

"Coffee at The Brew?" replied Spencer incredulously. "It's the best. I can't help it if you have poor taste." She took another sip from her mug. "But, seriously, what were you looking at?"

"Oh, just Mr. Fitz," he said gesturing his head in the direction where the man was sitting at a table reading a book and sipping his coffee. "He was my twelfth grade English teacher."

"I have him this year. Last year, too, actually. We're reading A Room of One's Own in there right now."

"That's the one about women's rights, by that Woolfe woman, right? That was a complete boor." Jason closed his eyes and pretended to snore as Spencer smacked him on his arm. He laughed and opened his eyes.

"It happens to be a wonderful commentary on women's rights and male privilege," said Spencer, rolling her eyes.

"See," replied Jason, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, "this is why you're going to end up at some Ivy League prep fest while I barely graduated from a state school."

Spencer smiled and sighed, taking a moment to sip her coffee. "I'm glad we have these brother-sister dates."

"So do I. What are we going to do when you're away at school?"

Spencer took a large gulp of her coffee, "You're going to have to come visit me in New York."

"So it's Columbia, then?" asked Jason, leaning back into the sofa.

"I just got my acceptance letter yesterday," answered Spencer. "It's a really great school, and I really think I just need to get away from Rosewood."

"You ready to brave the big city alone?" questioned Jason as the bells above the doors signaled the entrance of another person. Spencer's head perked up at the noise, and she smiled.

"Now, there's a brother-sister pair I wonder about," she exclaimed, her gaze following the entrance of the Montgomery siblings into the coffeehouse. She waved at Aria who waved distractedly back as she and Mike walked up to Mr. Fitz.

"Why?" asked Jason, setting his barely touched coffee down on the table in front of him.

"Oh, I don't know," said Spencer. "They have that typical brother-sister vibe siblings have from living together, a love-hate kind of relationship."

"They look like they're really close to Mr. Fitz," commented Jason, leaning back into the plush sofa.

"His been their neighbor for years," explained Spencer. "He's like a member of the Montgomery family." She watched as the siblings sat down with Ezra. He must have said something funny because Aria was smiling and Mike was snickering.

"You'd think by now, he would have started his own family," said Jason.

Spencer turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"He's a nice-looking guy and he has a house and good job. Doesn't that just scream wife and kids to you?"

"He's not that much older than you are," returned Spencer, sipping her coffee.

Jason snorted. "He's enough older. It just makes you wonder."

"Wonder what?"

"What he's waiting for."

Spencer watched as Mr. Fitz picked up his book and followed Aria and Mike out the door. His look was one of pure adoration. "Maybe it's not what he's waiting for, but who he's waiting for," she finished. "Maybe he's waiting on the right girl."

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"Oh, look at this one," exclaimed Ella. "Aria must have been five. Oh, how she loved that princess dress." She pointed to the faded picture in the photo album and snuggled closer to her husband who had his arm around her shoulders.

Byron shifted in his seat—his living room sofa—to accommodate his wife before replying, "I had forgotten she had a princess phase. But she did for a while there didn't she? What was it? Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella?"

"It was Beauty and the Beast," said Ella flipping the page. "She said that one day, she wanted to have a library like the Beast gave Belle. There she is in that one costume."

"Funny," said Byron, studying the picture carefully. "I don't remember Mike having a phase like that."

"Well," said Ella thoughtfully, "there was that time Mike really liked the Lion King. We must have watched it with him over a dozen times." She flipped several pages of the album. "And there's the picture to prove it," she gestured triumphantly.

"Hmm," said Byron, "What's Aria doing in the background?" He pointed to where Aria was standing on a chair reaching for something on the counter while a four-year-old Mike posed in his Simba pajamas.

"Oh," laughed Ella in remembrance, "she was stealing cookies out of the cookie jar. She thought we were too busy with Mike to notice."

"She loves your chocolate cookies."

"They're your mom's chocolate chip cookies," explained Ella. "I got the recipe from her."

"I guess that's why I like them so much," teased Byron.

Ella turned to smack him before repositioning herself. "Actually," she said, staring at the picture, "the person who seems to like them the most is Ezra. He cleaned me out the last time he came over."

"Did he now?" replied Byron thoughtfully.

"He has been keeping his end of the bargain," replied Ella pointedly. "He's cooled things off with Aria, and when he goes out with her, Mike goes along."

"I suppose," responded Byron half-heartedly.

"What's the matter?" asked Ella, sighing as she shut the photo album.

"It's just that I worry sometimes, about Aria and Ezra."

"What about?" prodded Ella.

"That they're rushing into things. That they really don't know all that much about each other. That he's too old for her."

"We can't prevent our children from making mistakes," said Ella practically. "We can only point them in the right direction."

"I don't want her to get hurt," replied Byron helplessly.

Ella snuggled in closer to him, putting the blue-leather photo album on the coffee table to do so. "Everyone gets hurt, Byron. No matter what we say, we can't prevent Aria from jumping, but if it comes down to it, we can help catch her if she falls."

"She needs more time to grow up," insisted Byron. "She needs to go to college, have fun, and not worry about her future."

"Even if she lives to be a hundred, she will always be our little girl, Byron."

Byron leaned down and kissed his wife's forehead in response, and then sat contentedly as he held her in his arms.

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"Emily," called Paige as she walked up to the other girl's locker. "Some of the girls on the swim team are going over to the Grille after practice. Do you want to come?"

Emily smiled at her girlfriend's invitation but shook her head in response. "I can't," she replied, reaching for some of the books she stored in her locker. "Mr. Fitz is holding tutorial after school, and I really need to go if I want my English grade to go up."

"You're really worried about college aren't you?" asked Paige, as she leaned her back against the locker next to Emily's.

"Aren't you?" asked Emily, worry evident in her voice. She shut her locker and looked at Paige carefully.

"Of course I am," answered Paige softly, "But I've known since I was five that I was going to Stanford. My dad started putting it in my head pretty early."

Emily sighed and started walking down the hallway. "My mom would be heartbroken if I went that far away."

"Emily," said Paige pointedly, "I thought we had already had this conversation."

"No, we did," said Emily. She half-smiled at her girlfriend. "I just had to say it again."

"Emily, if it's meant to be, we will find each other after college," Paige stopped in the hallway to reassure the other girl.

Emily took a deep breath and exhaled. "You're right. If it's meant to be we'll find each other. But until then…" she looked to the classroom in front of them.

"Until then we have now," said Paige. She leaned in to give Emily a kiss on the forehead. Emily smiled. "Rain check for the Grille?" asked Paige hopefully.

"Rain check," confirmed Emily. "Mr. Fitz is probably waiting for me right now." She looked into the classroom where Mr. Fitz was writing on his board. Aria was perched on the side of his desk, talking to him.

"They sure look…comfortable," said Paige, an odd ring in her voice.

"They grew up together," explained Emily. "I mean," she cleared her throat. "They've been neighbors since Aria was thirteen."

"Oh," said Paige. She saw as Aria said something and Ezra smiled in response. "If I didn't know any better I'd say they were more than neighbors."

"They are," said Emily.

Paige's eyebrows flew to her hairline. "Really?" she asked with interest.

"I j-just mean," stammered Emily, "that they're friends. Real friends." They saw Aria jumped off the edge of Mr. Fitz's desk and went over to the blackboard to correct something he had written.

"Isn't that illegal?" questioned Paige curiously.

"W-what do you mean illegal?" Emily watched as Aria put down the piece of chalk she was using and nodded in satisfaction before picking her bag up off the floor.

"I mean isn't it against the rules for teachers to teach students that they know well outside of the classroom?"

Emily shrugged. "Rosewood High is small," she explained. "And Mr. Fitz is the only twelfth grade English teacher.

"Oh," said Paige, losing interest as Aria exited the classroom and passed them as she walked down the hall. "So, I've gotta go, but later?" She began to walk away.

"Later," confirmed Emily. As soon as Paige was out of sight, she sighed. "That was close," she whispered to herself. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the classroom for her English tutorial.

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"That's another one for me," exclaimed Mike in triumph as the basketball fell through the hoop and bounced off the cement driveway.

"Oh, now you're going down, Montgomery," challenged Gavin as he picked up the ball and started dribbling. The boys scrimmaged for a while, taking a break when Mike made another shot.

"You staying for dinner?" asked Mike, after taking a drink of water.

"I can't," said Gavin, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the edge of his t-shirt. "My grandma's in town, and I promised my mom I would be home by six."

"We'd better call it quits, then," said Mike. "It's probably after five-thirty now."

"Oh, this isn't over, Montgomery," called out Gavin. He began to gather his things and stuff them into his gym bag.

"Oh course it's not," promised Mike sweetly.

"What? You don't think I can take you?" asked Gavin mockingly.

"I think next time we play, I'm going to be wiping you off my driveway," said Mike. At that, Gavin abandoned his things and lunged at Mike in an attempt to knock the basketball out of his hands. He stopped suddenly when something out of the corner of his eye caught his interest. "What is it, man?" asked Mike.

"Why is your sister over at Mr. Fitz's house?" asked Gavin, his tone one of utter bewilderment.

"Oh, he lives next door," said Mike nonchalantly. "Aria's been going over to his house lately because he's been helping her with her college applications."

"Doesn't look like they're working on applications," said Gavin, pointing to where the pair was sitting, plainly visible through the window.

"Um, well, sometimes Mr. Fitz and Aria talk about books and art and stuff. None of her friends are really into that, and she got really into the art thing when we were in Iceland. Mr. Fitz got her her first camera."

"Why?"

"Oh, Mr. Fitz's mom was an artist and he and Aria just seem to like to talk about that kind of thing, and then, of course, he is an English teacher so that's where the book thing comes from." Mike was babbling now, his voice becoming more nervous with every second.

"No, why'd he give her the camera?"

"Oh, it was for her birthday. He gave me Lions tickets for mine. I mean, my last one," explained Mike earnestly. "And Mom usually takes him cookies or something for his."

"Oh," said Gavin distractedly. He shrugged and reached for his bag. "I need to get going if I'm going to make it home before six." He began to walk down the driveway and down to his house a few blocks over. "See you later, man."

"See you," waved Mike. He turned to Aria and Ezra and thanked the stars that Gavin had left before he saw Aria give Ezra a peck on the lips.

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"Mrs. Welch," called Holden as he raced down the hallway of Rosewood High. "Mrs. Welch," he repeated.

She turned to him distractedly. "Oh. Holden. How can I help you?"she asked politely.

"Look," he panted. "I know submissions were due yesterday for the school's literary magazine, but if you could just read this poem, I think that you would agree that it should be published." He held out a sheet of paper towards her.

"Oh, yes, yes," she replied, taking the paper from him and sticking it in the pile she had in her arms. "I am sure you're work is excellent."

"Does that mean it's going to be published?" questioned Holden hopefully.

"Yes, of course," said Mrs. Welch, turning away from him and looking in the opposite direction. "The literary magazine is due to come out next month."

"Mrs. Welch?" asked Holden uncertainly, "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, I'm sure everything will be fine," she answered in a voice that sounded as if everything would not be fine. She shook her head vigorously. "It just makes me sick," she spat out in agitation. She took a deep breath and sighed. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this," she said her tone one of unease and frustration. "You are a student." She took a moment to survey the nearly abandoned hallways. She leaned in closer to Holden. "Have you heard anything?" she asked him eagerly.

"Heard anything about what?" he replied, leaning in toward her in a posture of mock-conspiracy.

"Why Mr. Fitz and a student of course," answered Mrs. Welch matter-of-factly.

"Mr. Fitz and a student," repeated Holden uneasily, taking a step away from the teacher.

"Yes. I've heard some students say it's Aria Montgomery." She inclined her head in the direction where Aria was sitting on the stairs, oblivious to their presence and she texted on her phone.

"Aria?" Holden looked between the two women uncertainly. "I don't know what you're getting at Mrs. Welch," he continued. "But Aria Montgomery is my friend."

"She may be your friend," said Mrs. Welch, a slight sting in her words. "But I've heard she's Mr. Fitz's friend too." She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Like I said," repeated Holden, his hands held up in a posture of surrender. "Aria's my friend, and she's been his neighbor for years, and so has Mrs. Montgomery."

"Still," said Mrs. Welch turning her attention back to Aria, "the thought of a good teacher like Mr. Fitz getting involved with a student…" she shuddered before continuing, "it makes me sick."

"Maybe they're just rumors," offered Holden. "Aria's been gone for over a year, and nothing interesting at school has happened since Noel Khan was caught cheating on his midterms. It makes for interesting gossip."

"Maybe," said Mrs. Welch distractedly.

"So, my poem?" asked Holden hopefully, retuning his attention to the paper in her hands.

"Oh, yes. I'll take a look at it, Holden," said Mrs. Welch as she continued her walk down the hallway, leaving Holden to look at Aria curiously, where she sat as obliviously as before.

April 10, 2012

We never know how life is going to turn out. A chance interaction can affect a person for a lifetime, little ripples of water turn into bigger and bigger circles. A mistake made years ago can haunt years later. I wonder if it's chance that gives and takes from us what it would. Do the Fates still spin our destinies? Maybe it's man that creates his own path in life. Or in my case, woman.

It's easy to blame our parents for things that we inherit, the problems and pains of this world. It's easy to blame their parents and their parents until we go back to Adam and Eve. But this doesn't solve anything except spread the blame around. If it continues this way then my children will blame me and their children will blame them until another hundred generations have lived and died on this earth.

It's much harder to blame ourselves for the bad things that happen, and most of the time it's not our fault for every bad thing that happens in our life. But that doesn't mean it's not not our fault either. I don't know what I'm rambling about. I guess I just think about Hanna who's had to deal with both the tragedy of her family breaking apart and the joy of find Caleb. And I think about Emily who is finally coming to terms with who she is before all that was ripped away from her. And I wonder about Spencer who has been through more in the last two years than most people experience in al lifetime, and who's still hiding secrets from her friends, secrets she shouldn't be burdened with.

The past can never be erased or undone. We can only move forward by learning from other people's mistakes and learning from our own. Today was the first day of the rest of my life. That sounds cliché, I know. But somehow it's true. I've entered a new phase, a new something that is more than just my senior year of high school. I don't know what's going to come next, what the Fates will weave for me or what the throw of the dice will be. But I, Aria Montgomery, am going to let whatever happens happen. That doesn't mean I'll let it define me, but it does mean that I will let it to help me grow and move forward.